Metaverse Allows You to Interact with Digital Humans
Elements of a Metaverse. Photo: Gartner
Metaverse – which is in its infancy – will eventually provide opportunities to multiple industries.
Tech researcher Gartner describes Metaverse as a collective virtual open space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical and digital reality to provide enhanced immersive experiences.
Gartner expects that by 2026, 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse for work, shopping, education, social media and/or entertainment.
Metaverse is device-independent and is not owned by a single vendor. It is an independent virtual economy, enabled by digital currencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
According to Gartner, the contributing technologies for a Metaverse include augmented reality (AR), flexible work styles, head-mounted displays (HMDs), an AR cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and spatial technologies.
As the Metaverse concept develops, the activities that currently take place in siloed environments will shift to a single Metaverse. These activities may include participation in a virtual social experience, shopping in virtual malls, virtual classrooms, interacting with digital humans for onboarding employees, customer service, sales and other business interactions.
Metaverse – which is in its infancy – will eventually provide opportunities to multiple industries such as higher education, medical, military, and other types of trades that can deliver a more immersive learning experience.
The businesses won’t need to create their own infrastructure, as the Metaverse will provide the business transaction framework. With the maturity of Metaverse concept, the existing businesses can hope to expand.
For example, virtual events can present more integrated offerings, retail can extend its reach to an immersive shopping experience, enterprises can achieve better engagement, collaboration, and interaction with their employees and business partners through virtually augmented workspaces, and social media can move to the Metaverse, where users can interact through three-dimensional avatars.
According to Gartner, the adoption of Metaverse technologies is still nascent and fragmented, and it recommends refraining from heavy investments in a specific Metaverse.
